Boy's anguish as culture put before safety

A child protection inquiry shows the risk of exposure to kin

The nine-year-old Aboriginal boy, here with his foster carers, was returned to the remote community where he was allegedly abused. Picture: Amos Aikman

IN a remote indigenous community, as a traditional funeral ceremony was under way earlier this year, a boy celebrated his ninth birthday.

The Aboriginal boy had grown up with white foster carers since he was a baby, the funeral ceremony was strange and frightening for him; even more frightening were the memories of alleged sexual abuse the boy had experienced in the community two years earlier.

The funeral ceremony had been deemed an "important family and cultural event" by caseworkers from the Northern Territory's Department of Families and Children.

The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle -- which stipulates indigenous children in foster care should remain connected to their culture -- was recently enshrined in national child protection guidelines.

But there are fears that despite a national focus on the sexual abuse of Aboriginal children in remote communities, not enough is being done to protect indigenous children who reveal they have been the victim of abuse.

The boy's case has been detailed to a NT government inquiry into child protection, which has exposed a broken system.

His nightmare began in 2008, during a two-week visit to his birth parents in a remote NT community. In the weeks following his return, the boy began to exhibit sexualised behaviour. His white foster carers were concerned that he had either witnessed, or experienced, sexual abuse.

They reported their concerns to the boy's child psychiatrist in the weeks following his return. A police investigation was carried out in 2008. They concluded the boy had -- at least -- watched a porn movie in the community, but did not find sufficient evidence of sexual assault to lay a charge.

But when he continued to display sexualised behaviour last year, his foster mother, bound by mandatory reporting laws, told authorities. She told The Australian she deeply regrets the day she followed procedure and reported the alleged sexual abuse.

Several months after that telephone call last year, the boy was taken from school by bureaucrats and put into the care of an emergency foster care provider, who checked him into a local motel, to the amazement of at least one local policeman.

"I was horrified at what occurred," says the NT policeman. "If it was not a government department, I would have looked at it as being an abduction."

For 13 days last year, the boy was cared for at the motel by several strangers, who worked revolving shifts. His guardians were allowed no contact. After his time in the motel, the boy spent a further month in emergency care.

"I nearly went insane, absolutely insane," the boy's foster mother says.

"I would wake up in the middle of the night, I would look at the stars and wail."

But the department was caught in a bind -- the boy's birth parents retained legal guardianship, although they had spent very little time with him throughout his life.

The department had assessed that the boy displayed a pattern of sexualised behaviour.

His natural parents, the foster carers were told, wanted the boy to spend more time with them.

The department wanted to put the boy in a neutral environment so a child specialist could assess him and decide the best options for his future.

But the boy's foster mother now has a different interpretation. "I believe the reason they removed him was because we were white," she says.

NTFC acting executive director Jenny Cleary said the department was under a legal obligation to protect confidential information relating to children in care and could not comment on the case.

But Ms Cleary said "the safety and privacy of children under the care and protection of NTFC is of the highest priority" and confirmed the boy's case had been "thoroughly investigated".

The boy's white foster parents had cared for him since he was an infant, when he was failing to thrive and suffering continual illness. The boy's birth parents, despairing for his future in their remote community, entrusted their son to the foster parents' care.

But the foster parents were never legally classified as such, as the boy's care was an informal arrangement between the couples.

It has since been determined that the boy's birth parents and his foster carers both hold parental rights.

But those rights were not enough for the foster parents to insist the boy should stay away from the community where he was allegedly sexually abused.

As the boy looked forward to going to the pet shop with his foster parents to buy fish for his new tank on his birthday this year, the NTFC insisted -- at the last minute -- that he attend the funeral in the Aboriginal community.

The directive was given following a request from the boy's birth parents.

"NTFC believe that it is important for (the boy) to learn about and have contact with his birth culture and also his natural parents," a child protection worker wrote. "This is an important family and cultural event."

One of the co-chairpeople of the NT government's child protection inquiry believes the national guidelines concerning the Aboriginal child placement principle do not place enough of an emphasis on child safety.

The chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, Muriel Bamblett, said the principle "should not be about putting children at risk, or putting a child's culture before their safety".

NT Aboriginal politician Alison Anderson agrees. "I don't think the principle should be used as the mechanism to expose a child to more abuse and violence," she says.

Ms Anderson also questions the appropriateness of Aboriginal foster children being forced to spend time with birth parents in remote communities -- a standard that does not apply to non-indigenous children.

"You've got to be careful of culture," Ms Anderson says. "It's okay if the real parents are taking the children out hunting and that kind of stuff, but normally these kids are just stuck in an environment where they are just watching television."

There is little doubt the handling of the case has caused enormous additional trauma to the boy, who was already struggling with intellectual disabilities as well as the torment of the alleged sexual abuse.

Since the department became involved, the boy has acted out violently and has required high doses of the antipsychotic drug Respiradol to calm him.

His foster mother is so traumatised she is unable to work.

The foster parents have given evidence to the child protection inquiry, and have also spoken with the acting NT Children's Commissioner, Hilary Berry, and the NT Ombudsman, Carolyn Richards, who is undertaking an inquiry of her own.

The child protection inquiry will report in September.